LinuxQuestions.org - I'm cracking up... AVermedia AverTV DVB-T 771

I think I'm going to go insane.. I've been bashing my head against a brick wall trying to get a DVB Linux box going. After frustrations with RHEL4, which my boss preferred me to use so that we standardised on site, I managed to agree with him that I'd switch to Slackware, a distro I'm a lot more comfortable in, and can generally trust to do things in the proper way rather than the RedHat way. Redhat just seems to adopt its own approaches to standards, and I just spent ages trying to work my way around circular dependences.

Anyway, made some good progress with this box now I'm under Slackware. Custom compiled kernel is setup just to use the drivers for this system, including that for the pair of AVermedia DVB-T 771 cards I've got installed.

But I seem to be hitting a brick wall.
Mythtv, nor the linuxtv-dvb-apps seem able to see / talk to the dvb device.

By default, the system tries to create the devices in the root of /dev, in the style /dev/dvb0.frontend0. I came across that on my box I setup at home and after digging up a good guide on udev editing, corrected it to point at the /dev/dvb/adaptor0/frontend0 that the linuxtv-dvb-apps and mythtv seem to want. That works fine at home.
This box seems to be happy to use similar rules, and has created the devices where I asked, but still the system won't talk to it.

To try and be helpful the following is the output from dmesg:

Linux version 2.6.13 (root@dvb) (gcc version 3.3.6) #3 SMP Tue Sep 27 12:17:23 BST 2005
BIOS-provided physical RAM map:
BIOS-e820: 0000000000000000 - 000000000009fc00 (usable)
BIOS-e820: 000000000009fc00 - 00000000000a0000 (reserved)
BIOS-e820: 00000000000e0000 - 0000000000100000 (reserved)
BIOS-e820: 0000000000100000 - 000000001f740000 (usable)
BIOS-e820: 000000001f740000 - 000000001f750000 (ACPI data)
BIOS-e820: 000000001f750000 - 000000001f800000 (ACPI NVS)
503MB LOWMEM available.
found SMP MP-table at 000ff780
On node 0 totalpages: 128832
DMA zone: 4096 pages, LIFO batch:1
Normal zone: 124736 pages, LIFO batch:31
HighMem zone: 0 pages, LIFO batch:1
DMI 2.3 present.
ACPI: RSDP (v000 ACPIAM ) @ 0x000f77a0
ACPI: RSDT (v001 INTEL D845GVS1 0x20050316 MSFT 0x00000097) @ 0x1f740000
ACPI: FADT (v001 INTEL D845GVS1 0x20050316 MSFT 0x00000097) @ 0x1f740200
ACPI: MADT (v001 INTEL D845GVS1 0x20050316 MSFT 0x00000097) @ 0x1f740300
ACPI: ASF! (v016 AMIASF I845GASF 0x00000001 MSFT 0x0100000d) @ 0x1f7444d0
ACPI: DSDT (v001 INTEL D845GVS1 0x0000010a MSFT 0x0100000d) @ 0x00000000
ACPI: PM-Timer IO Port: 0x408
ACPI: Local APIC address 0xfee00000
ACPI: LAPIC (acpi_id[0x01] lapic_id[0x00] enabled)
Processor #0 15:4 APIC version 20
ACPI: LAPIC (acpi_id[0x02] lapic_id[0x81] disabled)
ACPI: LAPIC_NMI (acpi_id[0x01] dfl dfl lint[0x1])
ACPI: LAPIC_NMI (acpi_id[0x02] dfl dfl lint[0x1])
ACPI: IOAPIC (id[0x01] address[0xfec00000] gsi_base[0])
IOAPIC[0]: apic_id 1, version 32, address 0xfec00000, GSI 0-23
ACPI: INT_SRC_OVR (bus 0 bus_irq 0 global_irq 2 dfl dfl)
ACPI: INT_SRC_OVR (bus 0 bus_irq 9 global_irq 9 high level)
ACPI: IRQ0 used by override.
ACPI: IRQ2 used by override.
ACPI: IRQ9 used by override.
Enabling APIC mode: Flat. Using 1 I/O APICs
Using ACPI (MADT) for SMP configuration information
Allocating PCI resources starting at 1f800000 (gap: 1f800000:e0800000)
Built 1 zonelists
Kernel command line: BOOT_IMAGE=Linux-DVB ro root=303
mapped APIC to ffffd000 (fee00000)
mapped IOAPIC to ffffc000 (fec00000)
Initializing CPU#0
PID hash table entries: 2048 (order: 11, 32768 bytes)
Detected 2400.709 MHz processor.
Using pmtmr for high-res timesource
Console: colour dummy device 80x25
Dentry cache hash table entries: 65536 (order: 6, 262144 bytes)
Inode-cache hash table entries: 32768 (order: 5, 131072 bytes)
Memory: 505296k/515328k available (3164k kernel code, 9604k reserved, 1231k data, 248k init, 0k highmem)
Checking if this processor honours the WP bit even in supervisor mode... Ok.
Calibrating delay using timer specific routine.. 4805.50 BogoMIPS (lpj=9611012)
Mount-cache hash table entries: 512
CPU: After generic identify, caps: bfebfbff 00000000 00000000 00000000 0000441d 00000000 00000000
CPU: After vendor identify, caps: bfebfbff 00000000 00000000 00000000 0000441d 00000000 00000000
monitor/mwait feature present.
using mwait in idle threads.
CPU: Trace cache: 12K uops, L1 D cache: 16K
CPU: L2 cache: 256K
CPU: Hyper-Threading is disabled
CPU: After all inits, caps: bfebfbff 00000000 00000000 00000080 0000441d 00000000 00000000
Intel machine check architecture supported.
Intel machine check reporting enabled on CPU#0.
CPU0: Intel P4/Xeon Extended MCE MSRs (12) available
CPU0: Thermal monitoring enabled
mtrr: v2.0 (20020519)
Enabling fast FPU save and restore... done.
Enabling unmasked SIMD FPU exception support... done.
Checking 'hlt' instruction... OK.
CPU0: Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU 2.40GHz stepping 01
Total of 1 processors activated (4805.50 BogoMIPS).
ENABLING IO-APIC IRQs
..TIMER: vector=0x31 pin1=2 pin2=-1
Brought up 1 CPUs
NET: Registered protocol family 16
ACPI: bus type pci registered
PCI: PCI BIOS revision 2.10 entry at 0xf0031, last bus=1
PCI: Using configuration type 1
ACPI: Subsystem revision 20050408
ACPI: Interpreter enabled
ACPI: Using IOAPIC for interrupt routing
ACPI: PCI Root Bridge [PCI0] (0000:00)
PCI: Probing PCI hardware (bus 00)
ACPI: Assume root bridge [\_SB_.PCI0] segment is 0
Boot video device is 0000:00:02.0
PCI: Ignoring BAR0-3 of IDE controller 0000:00:1f.1
PCI: Transparent bridge - 0000:00:1e.0
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Routing Table [\_SB_.PCI0._PRT]
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Routing Table [\_SB_.PCI0.P0P1._PRT]
ACPI: Power Resource [URP1] (off)
ACPI: Power Resource [URP2] (off)
ACPI: Power Resource [FDDP] (off)
ACPI: Power Resource [LPTP] (off)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKA] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 9 10 *11 12 14 15)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKB] (IRQs *3 4 5 6 7 9 10 11 12 14 15)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKC] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 *9 10 11 12 14 15)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKD] (IRQs 3 4 *5 6 7 9 10 11 12 14 15)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKE] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 9 10 *11 12 14 15)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKF] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 9 10 *11 12 14 15)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKG] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 9 10 *11 12 14 15)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKH] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 9 *10 11 12 14 15)
Linux Plug and Play Support v0.97 (c) Adam Belay
SCSI subsystem initialized
usbcore: registered new driver usbfs
usbcore: registered new driver hub
PCI: Using ACPI for IRQ routing
PCI: If a device doesn't work, try "pci=routeirq". If it helps, post a report
PCI: Ignore bogus resource 6 [0:0] of 0000:00:02.0
PCI: Bridge: 0000:00:1e.0
IO window: d000-dfff
MEM window: ff800000-ff8fffff
PREFETCH window: dea00000-deafffff
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1e.0 to 64
apm: BIOS version 1.2 Flags 0x03 (Driver version 1.16ac)
apm: overridden by ACPI.
VFS: Disk quotas dquot_6.5.1
Dquot-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order 0, 4096 bytes)
NTFS driver 2.1.23 [Flags: R/W].
Initializing Cryptographic API
pci_hotplug: PCI Hot Plug PCI Core version: 0.5
vesafb: framebuffer at 0xf0000000, mapped to 0xe0080000, using 3072k, total 8000k
vesafb: mode is 1024x768x16, linelength=2048, pages=4
vesafb: protected mode interface info at 00ff:44f0
vesafb: scrolling: redraw
vesafb: Truecolor: size=0:5:6:5, shift=0:11:5:0
Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 128x48
fb0: VESA VGA frame buffer device
isapnp: Scanning for PnP cards...
isapnp: No Plug & Play device found
Real Time Clock Driver v1.12
Non-volatile memory driver v1.2
hw_random: RNG not detected
Linux agpgart interface v0.101 (c) Dave Jones
agpgart: Detected an Intel 845G Chipset.
agpgart: Detected 8060K stolen memory.
agpgart: AGP aperture is 128M @ 0xf0000000
[drm] Initialized drm 1.0.0 20040925
ipmi message handler version v33
ipmi device interface version v33
IPMI System Interface driver version v33, KCS version v33, SMIC version v33, BT version v33
ipmi_si: Trying "kcs" at I/O port 0xca2
ipmi_si: Trying "smic" at I/O port 0xca9
ipmi_si: Trying "bt" at I/O port 0xe4
ipmi_si: Unable to find any System Interface(s)
IPMI Watchdog: driver version v33
Copyright (C) 2004 MontaVista Software - IPMI Powerdown via sys_reboot version v33.
intelfb: Framebuffer driver for Intel(R) 830M/845G/852GM/855GM/865G/915G chipsets
intelfb: Version 0.9.2
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:02.0[A] -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16
intelfb: Cannot reserve FB region.
Trying to free nonexistent resource <ffa80000-ffafffff>
Trying to free nonexistent resource <f0000000-f7ffffff>
PNP: No PS/2 controller found. Probing ports directly.
serio: i8042 AUX port at 0x60,0x64 irq 12
serio: i8042 KBD port at 0x60,0x64 irq 1
Serial: 8250/16550 driver $Revision: 1.90 $ 4 ports, IRQ sharing enabled
ttyS0 at I/O 0x3f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A
io scheduler noop registered
io scheduler anticipatory registered
io scheduler deadline registered
io scheduler cfq registered
Floppy drive(s): fd0 is 1.44M
FDC 0 is a post-1991 82077
RAMDISK driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 16384K size 1024 blocksize
loop: loaded (max 8 devices)
Linux video capture interface: v1.00
Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 7.00alpha2
ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx
ICH4: IDE controller at PCI slot 0000:00:1f.1
PCI: Enabling device 0000:00:1f.1 (0005 -> 0007)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1f.1[A] -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 17
ICH4: chipset revision 1
ICH4: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later
ide0: BM-DMA at 0xffa0-0xffa7, BIOS settings: hda:DMA, hdb:pio
ide1: BM-DMA at 0xffa8-0xffaf, BIOS settings: hdc:DMA, hdd:pio
Probing IDE interface ide0...
hda: ST340015A, ATA DISK drive
ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
Probing IDE interface ide1...
hdc: LITE-ON DVDRW SOHW-1693S, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15
hda: max request size: 128KiB
hda: 78165360 sectors (40020 MB) w/2048KiB Cache, CHS=65535/16/63, UDMA(100)
hda: cache flushes supported
hda: hda1 hda2 hda3
hdc: ATAPI 48X DVD-ROM DVD-R CD-R/RW drive, 2048kB Cache, UDMA(33)
Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.20
ide-floppy driver 0.99.newide
usbmon: debugfs is not available
usbcore: registered new driver hiddev
usbcore: registered new driver usbhid
drivers/usb/input/hid-core.c: v2.01:USB HID core driver
mice: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice
usbcore: registered new driver iforce
I2O subsystem v1.288
i2o: max drivers = 8
I2O Configuration OSM v1.248
I2O Bus Adapter OSM v$Rev$
I2O Block Device OSM v1.287
I2O SCSI Peripheral OSM v1.282
I2O ProcFS OSM v1.145
i2c /dev entries driver
i810_smbus 0000:00:02.0: i810/i815 i2c device found.
Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.9b (Thu Jul 28 12:20:13 2005 UTC).
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1f.5[B] -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 18
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1f.5 to 64
input: AT Translated Set 2 keyboard on isa0060/serio0
intel8x0_measure_ac97_clock: measured 55135 usecs
intel8x0: clocking to 48000
ALSA device list:
#0: Intel 82801DB-ICH4 with ALC202 at 0xffa7f800, irq 18
NET: Registered protocol family 2
IP route cache hash table entries: 4096 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
TCP established hash table entries: 16384 (order: 5, 131072 bytes)
TCP bind hash table entries: 16384 (order: 5, 131072 bytes)
TCP: Hash tables configured (established 16384 bind 16384)
TCP reno registered
TCP bic registered
Initializing IPsec netlink socket
NET: Registered protocol family 1
NET: Registered protocol family 17
Using IPI Shortcut mode
ReiserFS: hda3: found reiserfs format "3.6" with standard journal
ReiserFS: hda3: using ordered data mode
ReiserFS: hda3: journal params: device hda3, size 8192, journal first block 18, max trans len 1024, max batch 900, max commit age 30, max trans age 30
ReiserFS: hda3: checking transaction log (hda3)
ReiserFS: hda3: Using r5 hash to sort names
VFS: Mounted root (reiserfs filesystem) readonly.
Freeing unused kernel memory: 248k freed
Adding 999928k swap on /dev/hda2. Priority:-1 extents:1
input: ImPS/2 Generic Wheel Mouse on isa0060/serio1
eepro100.c:v1.09j-t 9/29/99 Donald Becker http://www.scyld.com/network/eepro100.html
eepro100.c: $Revision: 1.36 $ 2000/11/17 Modified by Andrey V. Savochkin <saw@saw.sw.com.sg> and others
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:01:08.0[A] -> GSI 20 (level, low) -> IRQ 19
eth0: 0000:01:08.0, 00:13:20:58:80:F3, IRQ 19.
Board assembly 000000-000, Physical connectors present: RJ45
Primary interface chip i82555 PHY #1.
General self-test: passed.
Serial sub-system self-test: passed.
Internal registers self-test: passed.
ROM checksum self-test: passed (0x04f4518b).
bttv: driver version 0.9.16 loaded
bttv: using 8 buffers with 2080k (520 pages) each for capture
bttv: Bt8xx card found (0).
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:01:00.0[A] -> GSI 21 (level, low) -> IRQ 20
bttv0: Bt878 (rev 17) at 0000:01:00.0, irq: 20, latency: 32, mmio: 0xdeafe000
bttv0: detected: AVermedia AverTV DVB-T 771 [card=123], PCI subsystem ID is 1461:0771
bttv0: using: AVerMedia AVerTV DVB-T 771 [card=123,autodetected]
bttv0: gpio: en=00000000, out=00000000 in=00f8ff0f [init]
bttv0: using tuner=4
bttv0: registered device video0
bttv0: registered device vbi0
bttv0: PLL: 28636363 => 35468950 .. ok
bttv0: add subdevice "remote0"
bttv0: add subdevice "dvb0"
bttv: Bt8xx card found (1).
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:01:01.0[A] -> GSI 22 (level, low) -> IRQ 21
bttv1: Bt878 (rev 17) at 0000:01:01.0, irq: 21, latency: 32, mmio: 0xdeafc000
bttv1: detected: AVermedia AverTV DVB-T 771 [card=123], PCI subsystem ID is 1461:0771
bttv1: using: AVerMedia AVerTV DVB-T 771 [card=123,autodetected]
bttv1: gpio: en=00000000, out=00000000 in=00f8ff0f [init]
bttv1: using tuner=4
bttv1: registered device video1
bttv1: registered device vbi1
bttv1: PLL: 28636363 => 35468950 .. ok
bttv1: add subdevice "remote1"
bttv1: add subdevice "dvb1"
bt878: AUDIO driver version 0.0.0 loaded
bt878: Bt878 AUDIO function found (0).
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:01:00.1[A] -> GSI 21 (level, low) -> IRQ 20
bt878(0): Bt878 (rev 17) at 01:00.1, irq: 20, latency: 32, memory: 0xdeaff000
bt878: Bt878 AUDIO function found (1).
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:01:01.1[A] -> GSI 22 (level, low) -> IRQ 21
bt878(1): Bt878 (rev 17) at 01:01.1, irq: 21, latency: 32, memory: 0xdeafd000
shpchp: shpc_init : shpc_cap_offset == 0
shpchp: Standard Hot Plug PCI Controller Driver version: 0.4
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1d.7[D] -> GSI 23 (level, low) -> IRQ 22
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1d.7 to 64
ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.7: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-M) USB2 EHCI Controller
ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.7: debug port 1
ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.7: BIOS handoff failed (104, 01010001)
ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.7: continuing after BIOS bug...
ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.7: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.7: irq 22, io mem 0xffa7fc00
PCI: cache line size of 128 is not supported by device 0000:00:1d.7
ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.7: USB 2.0 initialized, EHCI 1.00, driver 10 Dec 2004
hub 1-0:1.0: USB hub found
hub 1-0:1.0: 6 ports detected
USB Universal Host Controller Interface driver v2.3
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1d.0[A] -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1d.0 to 64
uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.0: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #1
uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.0: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 2
uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.0: irq 16, io base 0x0000e800
hub 2-0:1.0: USB hub found
hub 2-0:1.0: 2 ports detected
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1d.1[B] -> GSI 19 (level, low) -> IRQ 23
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1d.1 to 64
uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.1: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #2
uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.1: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 3
uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.1: irq 23, io base 0x0000e880
hub 3-0:1.0: USB hub found
hub 3-0:1.0: 2 ports detected
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1d.2[C] -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 17
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1d.2 to 64
uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.2: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #3
uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.2: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 4
uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.2: irq 17, io base 0x0000ec00
hub 4-0:1.0: USB hub found
hub 4-0:1.0: 2 ports detected
ohci_hcd: 2005 April 22 USB 1.1 'Open' Host Controller (OHCI) Driver (PCI)
NET: Registered protocol family 10
Disabled Privacy Extensions on device c04f3ae0(lo)
IPv6 over IPv4 tunneling driver
eth0: no IPv6 routers present
DVB: registering new adapter (bttv0).
DVB: registering frontend 0 (Zarlink MT352 DVB-T)...
DVB: registering new adapter (bttv1).
DVB: registering frontend 1 (Zarlink MT352 DVB-T)...

the output from lsmod looks like this:
Module Size Used by
dvb_bt8xx 11268 0
nxt6000 8580 1 dvb_bt8xx
mt352 7172 1 dvb_bt8xx
sp887x 8708 1 dvb_bt8xx
dst_ca 14592 1 dvb_bt8xx
dst 19588 2 dvb_bt8xx,dst_ca
cx24110 9092 1 dvb_bt8xx
ipv6 250624 10
ohci_hcd 20356 0
uhci_hcd 32656 0
ehci_hcd 32648 0
shpchp 99332 0
tpm_atmel 5504 0
tpm_nsc 6528 0
tpm 9120 2 tpm_atmel,tpm_nsc
bt878 9544 2 dvb_bt8xx,dst
tuner 37928 0
bttv 157520 2 dvb_bt8xx,bt878
video_buf 18820 1 bttv
btcx_risc 5000 1 bttv
tveeprom 11536 1 bttv
eepro100 28944 0
mii 5632 1 eepro100
evdev 8320 0
psmouse 34052 0

Also.. udevinfo -a -q path -n /dev/dvb/adaptor0/frontend0 tells me "/class/dvb/dvb0.frontend0"
and a subsequent udevinfo -a -p /sys/class/dvb/dvb0.frontend0 tells me
device '/sys/class/dvb/dvb0.frontend0' has major:minor 212:3
looking at class device '/sys/class/dvb/dvb0.frontend0':
SUBSYSTEM=="dvb"
SYSFS{dev}=="212:3"

so it seems to me that /dev/dvb/adaptor0/frontend0 is pointing to the right device on the system :scratch:
When I run mythtv it tells me it can't see any dvb cards, and when I run the scan utility from linuxtv-dvb-apps I get the following error message:

root@dvb:~/dvb/linuxtv-dvb-apps-1.1.0/util/scan# ./scan dvb-t/uk-PontopPike
scanning dvb-t/uk-PontopPike
using '/dev/dvb/adapter0/frontend0' and '/dev/dvb/adapter0/demux0'
main:1882: FATAL: failed to open '/dev/dvb/adapter0/frontend0': 2 No such file or directory